A SMARTLY-dressed rape suspect has been caught on CCTV grabbing a woman off a city street and carrying her away for what police described as an horrific sex attack.

The footage, released yesterday, shows the man in a suit walking through a city centre before following his 24-year-old victim – who was trying to catch a taxi home after a night out.

Police describe the suspect as being dressed “like a doorman” and the CCTV film shows him walking alongside the woman for about 10 minutes in Leeds in the early hours of August 14.

It is not known if the man assaults her before being pictured carrying her in his arms to the scene of the attack – next to St John’s shopping centre.

West Yorkshire Police/PA Wire

The alleged rapist is wearing a suit ashe was caught on CCTV

We have recovered a DNA profile of the attacker from the victim

Det Supt Pat Twiggs

Det Supt Pat Twiggs said: “Other footage we have shows this man walking around Leeds city centre and we strongly believe he was looking for someone to attack before he focused on the victim.

"We have recovered a DNA profile of the attacker from the victim.”

The suspect is described as black, aged 30 to 40, tall, with a shaved head.

GETTY

From the CCTV, police were able to get a good description of the man

He was wearing a long black overcoat and black trousers. The incident is similar to an attack in Birmingham last October in which a semiconscious 25-year-old woman was caught on CCTV being carried away in the arms of a rapist.

She had been drinking at the Walkabout bar. Police in Leeds have also looked at possible links with a rape of a 21-year-old woman in Toxteth, Liverpool, in July.